Labyrinthitis

 Alas, I wasn't able to attend the Linda Lindas SF show in November.  But some kind soul has posted the whole set to YouTube and it's well worth a shot.  The girls have switched to Gibsons and the sound has toughened up (so far they sound better live than on their recordings).  They're version of "Little Bit Of Soul" sounds cursory even at their best, but they're steadily building up a solid body of work of their own ("Never Say Never" is a great song).  Their youth, accessibility and generally nice demeanor will undoubtedly fuel detractors, but reality checkers will note that Mila handing off her drumsticks at the end of the set, rather than tossing them as I'm sure a "true" punker would have may be less menacing, but even a hardened adult doesn't want to be respsonsible for putting someone's friggin' eye out.   The set is shot entirely from stage right, so alas Mila is obscured for most of it.  Nevertheless their performan...

And now the word comes that Shane MacGowan has shuffled off.  And as my friends agreed, the only real surprise here is that he made it as far as he did. Of course, that's been said of many a rock and roll death (Keith Moon, por favor?).  Which doesn't make it any less true.  Or any less of an obvious cliche. But I come to praise and to bury.  Because lost in the inevitable tide of no surprise  will be the fact that MacGowan really was a "mad genius", as Rolling Stone called him, a brilliant writer and a soulful singer, and there was a time when The Pogues were one of the bands I listened to almost every day.  And while its become fashionable to write them off as a simply a drunken goof, a bad parody of Irish culture, blasting out lowest common denominator Irish pub songs at punk rock volume and tempos, anyone who ever actually listened to their albums would know that their musical ambition was broad and rich.  They reached for a lot, and they got ...

Somehow I only became aware this morning that the Linda Lindas have unleashed another new single, "Resolution/Revolution", and it sounds great, much tougher than a lot of the tracks off of Growing Up.  They continue to deliver the goods. Meanwhile across the sea, Yee Loi have posted not one but two live versions of "Dad's Money" - one acoustic.  Both sound fine though I'm wondering if the point of this is to prove something. Well, they don't have to prove anything to me.  YL is one of the bands I'm most excited about these days. Now as to my older idols - look I don't expect any of them to live up to my standards.  If I cleared out my collection of every artists who'd said or done anything I don't approve of I wouldn't have a single book, CD or DVD in the house.  Hell if I only cleared out the ones who were out and out scumbags I'd be down about 75% I suspect! Nevertheless, I was disappointed that my first rock and roll idol, Alic...

When I was a kid, about 13-14, I saw Tina Turner being profiled on ABC's 20/20 news series.  This would have been around `80-`81.  She was working the comeback trail, playing clubs and I guess at one point working day jobs to keep food in the fridge.  I wasn't the immersed music geek I am now at that age.  I was just getting into listening to rock radio a lot.  I didn't know much about Tina Turner.  I'd seen her on variety shows a couple of times but didn't know quite what to make of her back then. I knew there was such a thing as spousal abuse, or as we called it back then, wife-beating.  But I was shocked that such a powerful-seeming woman could have been subjected to it.  And by the gruesome realities of it she so unflinchingly shared.  And I watched a clip of her belting out an aching, gospel-y version of "Help". The music I head there didn't necessarily move me (though I later came to appreciate her version of "Help"), but her story did....